WHO WON SATURDAY’S MOTOCROSS DES NATIONS QUALIFIERS?

The winners of the qualifying heats were Tony Cairoli (Italy) in the 450 class, Trey Canard (USA) in the 250 class and Andrew Short (USA) in the Open class.

Ryan Dungey was fourth in the 450 class.

450 (MX1)

After being the first one to choosing a starting spot, Gautier Paulin took the holeshot and put France in the lead of the MX1 qualifying heat. Starting spots are critical at Colorado because of the short steep right hand layout of the starting line. However, 2010 450 World Champion Cairoli passed the Frenchman and brought Italy the first victory of the weekend.

Paulin ran second until Brett Metcalfe overtook him near the end of the race. Paulin fought back, but finished one second behind the Australian.

Dungey got a bad start but finished fourth overall and posted the fastest lap on the second-to-last lap of the race.

Jonathan Barragan, riding for Spain, got a consistent fifth position, followed by Belgian Steve Ramon, Estonian Tanel Leok and Portuguese Rui Goncalves. Jake Nicholls was ninth, despite theBritish  team being picked to start dead last at the morning’s starting spot lottery. Completing the top ten was Kiwi Josh Coppins.

Ken Roczen was winning the 250 qualifier when he fell?handing the victory to Trey Canard.

250 (MX2)

The MX2 qualifying race was a dogfight between Trey Canard and German Ken Roczen. The American took the lead at the very beginning of the race, but Roczen passed Canard with three laps to go. The German then fell in a right-hand berm and lost the lead, with Canard taking the victory for Team USA. Roczen was second.

Third was Belgian Jeremy Van Horebeek and Zach Osborne was fourth for Puerto Rico. World Champion Marvin Musquin finished fifth .

Ecuadorian Martin Davalos was sixth, followed by Latvian Matiss Karro, while Italian Alessandro Lupino finished eighth. Team Australia, who was 21st in today’s start lottery, was ninth courtesy of Dean Ferris, and completing the top ten was Harri Kullas for Team Finland.

Steve Ramon (7) never got to see the front of the field in Saturday’s 450 class qualifier. Steve was sixth. Gylfi Gudmundsson (88) was 24th for Team Iceland, while Brett Metcalfe (19) was a strong second. Stuart Edmund (46) from Ireland was 16th. Ireland is the favorite to win the B-Final today.

OPEN

Andrew Short dominated the Open class (which is really just a second 450 class) from beginning to end (Team USA got the 13th pick at the gate, but today they will get the first pick). New Zealander Ben Townley was nine seconds behind Short for second. Kyle Regal was third for the Puerto Rican team (which does have one Puerto Rican on it). Fourth and fifth were GP winners Max Nagl (Germany) and Clement Desalle (Belgium).

Brazilian Antonio Balbi finished sixth ahead of the Swiss Arnaud Tonus and Brit Brad Anderson. Yoshitaka Atsuta was a solid ninth position. Completing the top ten was Australian Jay Marmont.

French rider Xavier Boog could not finish the race due to a leg injury (calf), but is expected to race today. Team Iceland lost a rider and had to compete with only two riders, Luckily, in the Qualifiers only the top two scores count, but in Sunday’s MXDN five out of six scores count (and Iceland, if they make it out of the B-Final to the A-Final) will only have four scores.